The Dialectics of Maguphilia and Maguphobia Online Article

CODESRIA Bulletin Online, No. 13, June 2021 Page 1 Online Article The Dialectics of Maguphilia and Maguphobia Grief and relief been brought up on the secular doctrine preached and practised n March 17, 2021, the fifth Issa Shivji by Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, who president of Tanzania John Professor Emeritus never stopped reiterating that reli- OJoseph Pombe Magufuli, University of Dar es Salaam gion was a private matter and the aged 61, died a few months after Tanzanian state was secular. Dur- beginning his second term in office. ing the two weeks Magufuli was It was a ‘dramatic’ exit for a person not seen in public, the country was Increasingly the division between who had almost single-handedly awash with rumours, speculation Maguphiles and Maguphobes is (some would say heavy-handedly) and stories spun by spin doctors on surfacing, particularly among par- ruled the country for the preceding Magufuli’s health, the nature of his liamentarians. We may be witness- five years. The reaction of the Tan- disease, and whether or not he was ing a beginning of realignment of zanian populace was as dramatic, alive. Internal detractors and a sec- forces. Popular perception tends to if not extreme. Large sections of tion of the foreign Western press be cynical, justifiably so, for none down-trodden (‘wanyonge’ in Swa- superficially reported and gleefully of the emerging factions resonates hili) people in urban and semi-urban reiterated that Covid-19 had finally with their interests and daily lives. areas were struck with disbelief and caught up with President Magufuli Street wisdom has it that with the grief. Among them were motor-bike who was reputed to be a Covid- change of wind, opportunist politi- taxi drivers (‘bodaboda’), street denier. The then Vice-President cians are positioning themselves to hawkers (‘machinga’), women food Mama Samia Suluhu Hassan gave be on the right side (‘wanajiweka vendors (‘mama Ntilie’) and small heart complications as the cause of sawa’ as the street Swahili goes) of entrepreneurs (‘wajasiriamali’). At the president’s death. It was known the new president. the other end of the spectrum were that the president had a pace-maker. sections of civil society elites, lead- Between February 27, 2021 when It is not necessary for the purposes ers and members of opposition par- he was last seen in public and of this essay to establish what the ties, and a section of non-partisan March 17 when Magufuli’s pass- cause of death of President Magu- intelligentsia who heaved a sigh ing on was officially announced, fuli was. I do not intend to cloud of relief. Barring a few insensitive President Magufuli disappeared my analysis by that debate. opposition political figures in ex- from the public eye. He was not President Magufuli leaves behind ile, most in the middle-class group seen at public functions nor did a controversial legacy. It would be did not openly express or exhibit he attend church services on three intellectually futile to strike a strict their relief, as African culture dic- consecutive Sundays. Magufuli balance between Maguphilia and tates, until after the 21-day mourn- was a practising Catholic and a Maguphobia. That is a lazy way of ing period had passed. In between devout church-goer. He never understanding a political phenome- the extremes were large sections of missed the Sunday Mass nor did non. Drawing up a balance-sheet of politicians and senior functionaries he let go the opportunity to make the good and the bad is an accoun- in the state and the ruling party who political speeches from the pulpit. tant’s job not that of an intellectual continued singing the praises of the This practice distinguished Presi- analyst. Rather it is important to leader while privately keeping track dent Magufuli from his predeces- understand that Magufuli was a po- of the direction of the wind before sors to whom mixing politics with litical phenomenon, not an individ- casting their choice. religion was anathema. They had ual. Magufuli was a local variant of CODESRIA Bulletin Online, No. 13, June 2021 Page 2 populist political leaders who have who stands above classes and social by national unity and as a result emerged recently in a number of struggles. Indeed he even appears he reigned in centrifugal forces. countries of the South. Brazil and to rise above the state. The famous At the time of independence there India are obvious examples. Con- phrase attributed to Louis XIV were three identifiable centres ditions were ripe for the emergence ‘l’etat, c’est moi’, ‘I’m the state’ of power: the army, trade unions of demagogic politicians, partly as sums it all. Bonapartism has arisen and the state. The army mutiny a backlash to neo-liberalism which in historical situations where the of 1964 and the alleged attempt wreaked havoc with the social fab- struggling classes have either ex- by some trade unionists to make ric of the countries in the periphery hausted themselves and there is an common cause with the mutineers and partly because of the resulting apparent vacuum in the body poli- drew home the point that all was polarisation, inequalities and im- tic or the rein of the previous ruler not well and Nyerere’s national poverishment of the working peo- has been so laissez faire that ‘law project was tottering. The mutiny ple and middle classes. Disarmed, and order’ has broken down. The became the occasion to dismantle disillusioned and stripped of all Bonaparte legitimises his crassly the colonial army, ban independent hope, masses yearned for a messi- high-handed actions to return the trade unions and abolish the multi- ah. Populists presented themselves country to order and to rein in fight- party system. Opposition parties as such deliverers. The masses in ing factions in which everyone is then were miniscule without much Tanzania found themselves in this for themselves and the devil takes support but they had the potential state when Magufuli appeared. the hindmost. Liberal institutions to derail the national project, as of ‘bourgeois’ democracy such as Nyerere saw it. Tanzania was the Populist rhetoric varies from coun- parliament and judiciary are either first country in this part of Africa to try to country but invariably it feeds set aside (a fascist option) or ema- rebuild the army from scratch with on heightening racial, religious and ciated of their content (neo-fascist soldiers recruited mainly from the gender differences and exploits authoritarianism). They exist in ruling party’s youth wing. popular prejudices. The Magufuli name only, but go through the ritu- phenomenon was not a deus ex als of elections, law-making and In 1965 a new one-party constitu- machina. To understand it we must ‘judicial decision’ making, which tion providing for a highly cen- locate it in the history and politics means little in practice. tralised executive presidency was of the country and come up with a passed. From then on, the polity correct characterisation. I charac- Unlike much of the rest of Africa, was informed by the centralising terise the Magufuli phenomenon as Tanzania can justifiably boast of a tendency, power being concen- messianic Bonapartism. Before we relatively stable and peaceful pol- trated in the state and the party. dwell further on this, let me say a ity as well as smooth succession In 1968, an independent religious couple of things about Bonapartism from one administration to an- organisation of Muslims, the East as a political phenomenon. other. Julius Nyerere, the founding African Muslim Welfare Society, president, ruled for nearly quar- was banned for fear that it could Bonapartism ter of a century followed by three become an organisational home presidents, each one of whom was for disgruntled Muslim politicians. When classes are weak or have in power for ten years, that is, two The 1967 Arusha Declaration en- been disarmed ideologically and terms of five years, the term limit shrining the policies of socialism organisationally over a generation, prescribed by the Constitution of and self-reliance saw the nationali- politics suffer from Bonapartist ef- the United Republic of Tanzania, sation of the commanding heights fects. Bonapartism can take differ- 1977. President Magufuli had just of the economy. That lay the basis ent forms depending on the con- entered his second term after the for the rise of parastatals with their crete situation. Quickly, we may general election of October 2020 own spawning bureaucracy. Over a identify the two most relevant to us when he met his death. period of next ten years, relatively – militarist and messianic. Tanzania independent co-operatives were has been saved of the former for The political antecedents abolished and replaced by crop reasons which will become clear in authorities. Independent student, the course of this essay. In the late The driving force during Mwalimu youth, and women’s organisations president we witnessed the latter. Nyerere’s reign was the ideology of nation-building and development. were all brought under the wing Bonapartism is characterised by the Nation-building called for national of the party. Thus the proto-ruling unexpected rise of an individual unity. Nyerere was preoccupied class which could be described CODESRIA Bulletin Online, No. 13, June 2021 Page 3 as a bureaucratic bourgeoisie or led by Zanzibaris to which a few had to attach themselves. Nonethe- state bourgeoisie established its mainlanders aligned. To Nyerere’s less it was on Zanzibar issues – ideological and organisational surprise, the Zanzibari CCM fac- Zanzibar’s membership of the Or- hegemony. By the time Nyerere tion proved to be so formidable that ganisation of Islamic Conference stepped down in 1985, Tanzania it managed to overturn Nyerere’s on its own and Parliament adopting had one of the most formidable preferred choice to succeed him.

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